Montreal for The Curious Wanderers: a Friday-to-Monday weekend
An island city that argues with winter in two languages.
No theme, just the city at its best. The sights that earn their reputation, a workshop or a market, one strange place nobody told you about, and dinner where the food is the point.
Friday: Bagel ovens and a hidden bar
- St-Viateur Bagel
The wood-fired oven has not gone out since 1957; watch the rollers hand-shape honey-water bagels and take a warm one away.
- Schwartz's
Smoked meat cured ten days and steamed to order since 1928, served medium-fat on rye; order a pickle and a cherry cola.
- Le Mal Nécessaire
Down a staircase marked only by a neon pineapple, tiki drinks and dumplings in a Chinatown cellar; a good place to be mysterious.
Saturday: The big market and a museum of curiosities
- Marché Jean-Talon
The largest open-air market in North America; squash and maple syrup in autumn, Quebec garlic and cheese, and a Sicilian bakery on the corner.
- Redpath Museum
Canada's oldest purpose-built museum, 1882, with a Gorgosaurus, Egyptian mummies and a cabinet of curiosities; a small, odd, very good place.
- Le Serpent
Italian cooking in a converted foundry, with raw concrete and long tables; the right dinner after a day among fossils.
Sunday: Hands, bagels and a Mile End dinner
- Fairmount Bagel
The older rival, open twenty-four hours since 1919, still rolling by hand in a shop the width of a doorway; compare it with St-Viateur.
- Ceramics workshop, Plateau
A hand-building or wheel session with Plateau potters who sell their work at local markets; book a studio in advance and bring an apron.
- Lawrence
A modern British-Quebec kitchen in Mile End, with a room like a library; order the bread and whatever the day's fish is.
Monday: Market hall and the first fort
- Marché Atwater
The 1933 art-deco market hall by the Lachine Canal, with butchers downstairs and maple and cheese counters; walk the canal path after.
- Satay Brothers
Two brothers cooking their Singaporean mother's laksa and pork-belly buns in a room of red lanterns; a good lunch with a canal view.
- Pointe-à-Callière crypt
Walk the foundations of the 1642 fort and the first Catholic cemetery under glass; the underground tour ends at the old sewer.